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Heru

Other Names:

Horus, Hor, Har

(Har, Hor; G/R Horus) - "High, Above" A collective term for a number of Names depicted either as hawk-headed men or as full hawks, Heru symbolizes leadership of all sorts and specifically the leadership demonstrated in the position of Ruler of the Two Lands. Heru is known even before the advent of hieroglyphic writing from depictions on Predynastic pottery and walls, of hawks and standards with the hawk sitting atop them; Predynastic and early Dynastic kings wrote their names within a serekh, a drawing of a palace with a hawk sitting upon its roof. The Kemetic observed in the hawk theophany the quickness, intelligence, alertness and staying power of a just ruler; nothing escaped the watchful eye of the true Heru, and no wrongdoer escaped His claws. Earlier forms of Heru depict Him as an abstract sky-god, with the sun and moon His two eyes; later ones depict Him as anything from victory personified to the son of the Lord of the Dead, Heru-sa-Aset, who would become the most popular form of Heru in the later periods.